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Ace Metrix Announces the Top Brands and Ads of 2012

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --(Business Wire)--

Ace Metrix®, the new standard in television and video analytics, today
announced the top TV brand advertisers and ads of 2012. Brand of the
Year honors went to 16 advertisers, in 15 categories, which earned the
highest average Ace Score for their body of work in 2012. In addition,
Ace Metrix revealed the Top 20 most effective individual Ads of the
Year, a list representing the highest scoring ads across 28 industries
and nearly 6,000 ads scored in 2012.

"2012 was a year marked by creative strategies that stressed innovation
while embracing cause and humor," said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix.
"The number of brands airing voluminous amounts of quality creative and
still beating the competition is noteworthy. To deliver five great ads
in a year and beat out your category competitors is quite an
achievement, but to develop 20 or upwards of 50 ads in a year and remain
the most effective brand of a category is a truly stellar
accomplishment. Brands like Best Buy, Cadillac, Ford, Olive Garden,
Pizza Hut, Samsung (News - Alert) and Visa did just that.

"Case in point, Samsung, the Brand of the Year winner in the technology
category (Average Ace Score: 621), won by delivering consistently good
creative across all of its brands while producing more than three times
the volume of new creative than tech leader Apple," Daboll continued.
"And in a category as vast as Technology - which spans hardware,
software, mobile phones, tablets, TVs, video games and websites - the
competition is especially fierce."

Samsung takes the top technology Brand of the Year, achieving an average
Ace Score of 621 for its hardware products followed closely by its
Samsung Televisions (Avg. Ace Score 611). In addition, Samsung also
holds three spots on the Top 20 Ad list, including the Number One ad of
the year for its "For Your Big Life" French Door refrigerator, (also the
most effective ad of Q2 with an Ace Score of 697). Samsung is no
stranger to the winner's circle in TV advertising, airing the
top-scoring ad of 2010 (entitled "Wonder-full,"
promoting its 3D LED TV), which is still the highest scoring ad to
date.

Despite Samsung's brand-wide success, the iPhone (News - Alert) remains America's most
effective mobile phone brand (Avg. Ace Score 610), making headlines in
2012 with a
celebrity ad campaign featuring Zooey Deschanel and Samuel L. Jackson,
as well as the launch of the iPhone 5. In fact, two iPhone 5 ads scored
within the Top 20 - its ad promoting the iPhone's new panoramic picture
taking functionality (Ace Score: 672) and its ad promoting Apple's new
ear buds (Ace Score 668). Samsung mobile phones continued its strong
year, finishing second to Apple iPhones with an average Ace Score of 576.

2012 Brand of the Year Category Winners

To qualify for Brand of the Year, brands must have debuted five or more
unique pieces of creative within an industry or category containing more
than 125 pieces of creative and five qualifying brands. The list below
represents the brands with the highest average Ace Score for their 2012
body of work.

*Definition: Ace Score is the measure of ad creative
effectiveness based on viewer reaction to national TV ads.
Respondents are randomly selected and representative of the U.S.
TV viewing audience. The results are presented on a scale of
1-950, which represents scoring on creative attributes such as
Persuasion, Relevance, Information, Attention, Change, Desire and
Watchability. To qualify for Ace Metrix Brand of the Year, brands
must have debuted five or more unique pieces of creative within an
industry or category containing more than 125 pieces of creative
and five qualifying brands. The list above represents the brands
with the highest average Ace Score for their 2012 body of work.

*Definition: Ace Score is the measure of ad creative
effectiveness based on viewer reaction to national TV ads.
Respondents are randomly selected and representative of the U.S.
TV viewing audience. The results are presented on a scale of
1-950, which represents scoring on creative attributes such as
Persuasion, Relevance, Information, Attention, Change, Desire and
Watchability. The list above represents the twenty highest scoring
ads to have debuted nationally in 2012.

A changing of the guard was not only seen in the technology category,
but also in the beverage category in which Blue Moon usurped the top
spot from 'big beer,' and Ocean Spray ousted Coca-Cola from the winner's
platform. Despite its success
during the Olympics, Coca-Cola was not able to maintain its 2011
Non-Alcoholic Beverage Brand of the Year Status in 2012, achieving an
average Ace Score of 585 compared to its average score of 607 in 2011.
Grabbing the top spot was Ocean Spray, whose ads include two men in a
cranberry bog. Their six ads delivered an average Ace Score of 595. Blue
Moon swept the Alcoholic Beverage Category with an average Ace Score of
538, beating out big beer brands like Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Lite
and Coors Light, all of which failed to even make the Watch
List this year, a stark comparison to 2011.

Restaurants Achieve Higher Scores than any other Category

Not only did Olive Garden win Casual Dining Brand of the Year, it also
was the OVERALL top-scoring brand in 2012. The brand's messages of value
resonated with American consumers, and the Italian restaurant chain
knocked Applebee's off the Brand of the Year block with an average Ace
Score of 624 compared to Applebee's average Ace Score of 605 in 2011. On
the QSR side, pizza beat out burgers, as Pizza Hut achieved Brand of the
Year status for its category with an average Ace Score of 598.

A Microsoft Dis-Kinect

Microsoft, whose Kinect brand was the most effective brand of 2011
struggled to make the same impressive showing in 2012 with the exception
of its Surface launch in October, which earned a spot on the Ad of the
Year Top 20 with "On the Surface" (Ace Score 674).

Household Products and Appliances Cleaned up Using Messages of
Innovation

Four of the Top 5 Ads of 2012 were for household products and appliances
that touted notable innovation and drew the attention of consumers,
including the aforementioned number one Ad of the Year for Samsung's
refrigerator (Ace Score: 697), Frigidaire's "History of Innovation" ad
(Ace Score: 691), Tide's "Portable Stain Eraser" ad (Ace Score: 679),
and Lysol's ad for its no-touch Kitchen System (Ace Score: 677).

Cause-Supporting Brands Reap Rewards

Ford, which dominated the non-luxury automotive category as both Brand
of the Year (avg. Ace Score: 566) and earned an Ad of the Year (Ace
Score: 673), supported first responders, breast cancer and U.S. troops
in five of its top 10 ads. AT&T earned a spot on the Top Ads list with
"Jordyn Wieber: Take The Pledge" (Ace Score: 666), part of an incredibly
high scoring cause-based campaign. Outback Steakhouse earned an Ad of
the Year for their support of veterans, while other brands such as Bank
of America, Dove, Miller High Life, and Verizon Wireless (News - Alert) produced the
most effective ads of their respective categories using cause-based
messages.

American-Made Automotive Steps up Competition

Ford's aforementioned dominance in the non-luxury automotive category is
just one example of American automakers flexing their marketing muscle
in 2012. Cadillac and Infiniti tie for Brand of the Year honors in the
Luxury Automotive category. Cadillac used many of the world's most
beautiful and treacherous roads as the visual backdrop to demonstrate
their latest innovations, while Infiniti demonstrated innovation and
technology closer to home. Ford, Infiniti and BMW also earned spots on
the Top 20 Ads of the Year list all by stressing messages of innovation.
Examples include Infiniti's "back-up collision intervention system,"
BMW's Google direction functionality, and Ford's foot-operated lift-gate.

M&Ms Ms. Brown Doesn't Miss

M&M's was one of the few brands that retained its category
year-over-year honors, earning Brand of the Year for Candies & Snacks.
Its most effective ad of the year introduced the sophisticated Ms. Brown
during the Super Bowl (Ace Score: 671), continuing a creative strategy
that has worked well for the brand: personifying its candy. "Ms. Brown"
tied Doritos' Sling Baby for Top Ad of the Super Bowl, both of which
made it onto the 2012 Top Ads of the Year list.

Ace Metrix® is the new standard in television and video analytics,
dedicated to delivering better, faster, and more cost-effective
solutions for evaluating video advertising within competitive context.
Through the Ace Metrix LIVE™ platform, companies can now access timely,
actionable data wherever, whenever they need to, enabling real-time
advertising campaign optimization. Combining leading edge technology and
patent pending methodology, Ace Metrix is revolutionizing the way
marketers measure themselves and their competitive landscape. The
Company is privately held and is backed by leading venture capital firms
and industry leaders including Hummer Winblad (News - Alert) Venture Partners, Palomar
Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures, and WPP.

Follow Ace Metrix on Twitter for sustained insight: @Ace_Metrix.

Note: Ace Metrix®, the Ace Metrix logo design, Ace Score®, and
Creative Lifecycle Management® are registered trademarks and Ace Metrix
LIVE™ is a trademark of Ace Metrix. Other trademarks are property of
their respective owners.